First man on Everest, Sir 'Ed', passes away

The gangling New Zealander devoted much of his life to aiding the mountain people of Nepal and took his fame in stride, preferring to be called "Ed" and considering himself just an ordinary man.

"Sir Ed described himself as an average New Zealander with modest abilities," Prime Minister Helen Clark said in a statement. "In reality, he was a colossus. He was a heroic figure who not only 'knocked off' Everest but lived a life of determination, humility, and generosity."

"The legendary mountaineer, adventurer, and philanthropist is the best-known New Zealander ever to have lived," she said.

Hillary died at Auckland Hospital at 9 am on Friday (0130 IST), of a heart attack, the Auckland District Health Board said in a statement. He had been ailing for several years.

Hillary's life was marked by grand achievements, high adventure, discovery, excitement -- and by his personal humility. Humble to the point that he only admitted being the first man atop Everest long after the death of Tenzing Norgay, the mountain guide with whom he stood arm in arm on the summit on May 29, 1953.

He had pride in his feats. Returning to base camp as the man who took the first step onto the top of the world's highest peak, he declared, "We knocked the bastard off."

The accomplishment as part of a British climbing expedition even added luster to the coronation of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II four days later.

She knighted the angular, self-deprecating Hillary, who was just 33, as one of her first acts.

But he was more proud of is decades-long campaign to set up schools and health clinics in Nepal, Norgay's homeland.

He wrote of the pair's final ascent to the top of the world: "Another few weary steps and there was nothing above us but the sky. There was no false cornice, no final pinnacle. We were standing together on the summit. There was enough space for about six people. We had conquered Everest.

"Awe, wonder, humility, pride, exaltation – these surely ought to be the confused emotions of the first men to stand on the highest peak on Earth, after so many others had failed," Hillary noted.

"But my dominant reactions were relief and surprise. Relief because the long grind was over and the unattainable had been attained. And surprise, because it had happened to me, old Ed Hillary, the beekeeper, once the star pupil of the Tuakau District School, but no great shakes at Auckland Grammar (high school) and a no-hoper at university, first to the top of Everest. I just didn't believe it."

The pair spent just 15 minutes on the summit, taking photographs as evidence of their achievement, before starting the arduous descent.

Hillary's philosophy of life was simple, "Adventuring can be for the ordinary person with ordinary qualities, such as I regard myself," he said in a 1975 interview.

Close friends described him as having unbounded enthusiasm for both life and adventure.